Immigrants Forgoing Citizenship While Pursuing American Dream

By DEBORAH SONTAG

Published: July 25, 1993

For most of his 12 years in this country, Armando Espinosa, an immigrant from Ecuador, had absolutely no intention of becoming a United States citizen. What would be the purpose? he asked himself. With a green card in his wallet, he led a comfortable life in Queens, working as an industrial mechanic while his two children flourished in public schools. He certainly did not consider himself American.

"I am Ecuadorean in my blood and my gut," he said. "I do not even like apple pie."

Mr. Espinosa was hardly alone in his thinking. Unlike 50 years ago, when the majority of immigrants routinely sought to naturalize, only slightly more than a third of legal permanent residents now apply to become citizens. Although advocates for immigrants believe that the tide is turning, most immigrants now exist in a state of legal limbo, many nourished by the dream, often an illusion, that they will someday return home. 'Not Healthy for Democracy'

Numbering up to 10 million nationally, these immigrants form a growing population of tax-paying residents without the right to vote or to serve on juries, police forces or in many Federal jobs. At a time when ethnic and racial tensions are fracturing the harmony of many cities, the immigrants' status -- seen by some as an unfair disenfranchisement and by others as a failure to integrate -- has become a cause of concern.

"You don't want a city composed of isolated pockets of immigrants who belong to a subculture and not to the larger society," said Sean R. Benson, executive director of the nonprofit Emerald Isle Immigration Center in Queens and the Bronx. "It's not healthy for them or for democracy."

Legal immigrants are eligible for citizenship after five years in the country, or after three years if they are married to a citizen. The reasons that most do not naturalize are complex, ranging from their close ties to home in the age of jet travel and long-distance telephone calls to their fear of the citizenship interview -- in which immigration officials may challenge them to "Name the order in which the 13 colonies came into the union" or "Explain the stripes on the American flag."

"It's easier to exist in limbo between two worlds," said Margie McHugh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. "Because people can come and go more easily, they are not forced to make the ultimate choice of where they want to pledge their allegiance."

With the help of officials in cities like New York, however, advocates like Ms. McHugh are aggressively selling the advantages of citizenship on the radio and in community workshops -- just as New York City textbooks used to promote Americanization in the early part of the century.

Already, owing as well to changes in the application process, more New York immigrants are applying for citizenship than at any point in the recent past. Over the last year applications to the New York office of the immigration service have increased by 70 percent. At the same time a small industry catering to, and sometimes exploiting, applicants has arisen, with nonprofit groups offering free civics classes while for-profit stores charge exorbitant rates to help immigrants fill out the forms.

Starting in November the number of applicants is expected to swell as the three million immigrants granted amnesty under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 become eligible for citizenship. In a recent, typical month, about 8,000 of them called the National Association of Latino Elected Officials to inquire about the process.

"I think we will see a very dynamic citizenship movement build in the next decade, with millions of people coming forward, spurred by the folks who received amnesty," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Forum. Attitude Changes Slowly

Mr. Espinosa's attitude toward citizenship slowly evolved. As his children -- one born in the United States -- became Americanized, he found himself increasingly interested in the laws and politics of his new country. He could no longer vote in Ecuador and he could not vote in the United States. He began to feel like a man without a nation, he said.

Slowly angered by what he saw as the political weakness of Hispanic residents, Mr. Espinosa said he felt guilty. "If people like me retain our allegiances to home and refuse to participate in electoral politics here," he said, "the lot of our race will never improve."

Just as Mr. Espinosa changed his thinking with time, so too have immigrant groups, particularly as inner-city ethnic tensions flared and anti-immigrant sentiment intensified. In the last few years it has become a priority for Hispanic and Asian groups, as well as for politicians in newly created minority districts, to convert immigrants to citizens and then register them to vote.

"Our political power will be thwarted if we don't transform into citizens the immigrants who right now, technically, don't count," said Luis Miranda, director of the Hispanic Federation of New York City. National Identity